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Author Topic: Airline optical prints.
Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003


 - posted January 04, 2004 06:32 AM      Profile for Tom Photiou     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I was interested to read Nicks comments about a list some of you chaps put together ref titles with optical sound,i never realised it was anywhere like 43,(i do have The Bounty with Mel Gibson if it wasn't on there, ive not seen it on any lists before or since) For those who have FFTC issue 41 1998 have a look at Dereks viewpoint, if you dont have a copy here is a potted version, he answered my quetion into where are they originated and where are they now,He explaines--
Through Roy Hubbard from Rank labs he was introduced to a man in charge of a company called SUNSTRAND,the company responsible for airline prints. Based with techniclour labs near Heathrow.He was told most prints were made at the labs in NY with Rank doing some of there own titles here. USA prints had an almost B/W colour to the soundtrack while the UK prints had a dark blue look to them, the UK labs didn't coat them, The result-UK Tracks gave a lower output with more hiss and plops. Some prints carried another track on the edge of the sprocket holes for other laugages.He adds at one point he was standing in front of 5-6 thousand copies of feature films. Upon delivery each film had to be spliced together to be put into a large cartridge for aircraft use and coated with silicone to avoid enulsion build up and scracthing. The checking machines used to view the prints had xenon lamps so the sound output was always very good and powerful.
And now for those of you with strong stomachs read on- once the films had served there purpose they were returned to various film dumps around the world & supposedly junked. Derek explains how he was at Sunstrand when they destroyed around 500 feature films & an official from the film industry stood there while they put an axe through every film, [Mad] if i had been therei would have been on my knees beggin' Obviously some of these prints did get out and Derek manged a deal with Warner and columbia to sell Derann a few prints, around ten titles in all and of course it all ended when the airlines went to video, you need to take care purchasing them as Derek explains most of the airline prints were done on eastman stock at a time when it was suspect so many are or will likely turn pink, the storage for any film to slow this down or prevent it, is as cool as poss, mine are all in a lower ground room which is always nice and cool all year round. If any of you have that issue take a read, it's a good one and an eye opener.

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Kevin Faulkner
Film God

Posts: 4071
From: Essex UK
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted January 04, 2004 06:55 AM      Profile for Kevin Faulkner         Edit/Delete Post 
Hi Tom, Just read this post and have to say that it made me feel sick. Fancy them using an axe on all those films. [Mad] Thanks goodness Derek was able to save a few. I wasnt aware that they were printed in the US as well as the UK. I thought that only Rank in the UK were printing them so it was interesting to read about the different soundtracks etc.
Anyway thanks for that info, Kev.

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GS1200 Xenon with Elmo 1.0...great combo along with a 16-CL Xenon for that super bright white light.

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted January 04, 2004 06:57 PM      Profile for John Whittle   Email John Whittle       Edit/Delete Post 
There were several labs in the US that produced Super8 prints, but I think that only a few did optical sound. Technicolor and possibly Movielab or Deluxe. However, none of the labs applicated the sound track (if that's what you mean by "coating") which is normally done with 16mm and 35mm to retain silver along with dye in the track. The physics of building sound track applicator wheels that have to bead apply a vicous developer and then wash it off during process was not possible without alot of defects due to sound track blips into the picture (it's still a problem with 16mm and 35mm).

Agfa stock had a cyan dye with a sharper cut off than Eastman which might explain a difference you see between US and UK prints. Super8 optical sound was designed from the outset to read a dye track. However with print fade, the lack of the dye plus silver in the track will result in lower and lower sound output.

John

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